Great Longstone is a small Derbyshire village in the Peak District National Park. It lies on the southern side of Longstone Edge a couple of miles from the market town of Bakewell.
Farming and lead mining were early industries in the area. The mining is now long gone but there are still working farms in and around the village.
The 14th Century Parish Church, St Giles, provides a service to the people of Great Longstone and the surrounding hamlets, Little Longstone, Rowland and Hassop.
The Midland Railway, which passed by the edge of the village in the 1860’s opened up transport Bakewell and Buxton and further afield to London and Manchester. Though the trains stopped running in the 1960’s a legacy is the delightful walking and cycling route, the Monsal Trail.
Within the village we are fortunate to have 2 popular pubs, The Crispen and The White Lion, with The Packhorse close by in Little Longstone.
The small well stocked village shop, situated at the foot of Sunny Bank, is open daily Tuesday to Sunday.
The village has a thriving primary school, a pre-school and a range of clubs and societies, many of which operate from the Village Hall.
In the 1870s Great Longstone was a much larger parish, stretching as far as, and including, Holme Hall on the edge of Bakewell.
The following is an extract from the Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72)
LONGSTONE (GREAT), a village, a township, and a chapelry in Bakewell parish, Derby. The village stands on high ground, under a lofty range of hills, called Longstone Edge, near the Derby and Buxton railway, 3 miles NW by N of Bakewell; consists of one long street; and has a station on the railway, and a post office under Bakewell.
The township bears the name of Great Longstone-with-Holme. Real property, £5,292; of which £990 are in quarries. Population in 1851 was 564 and in 1861 was 683, living in 130 houses. The increase of population. arose from the temporary presence of labourers at the forming of the railway.
The manor and much of the land belong to the Duke of Devonshire. Longstone Hall, an ancient mansion at the West end of the village, is the seat of T. Gregory, Esq. Holme Hall is the residence of T. J. Gisborne, Esq.
The chapelry includes also Little Longstone township, and part of Wardlow (popluation of 925 living in 173 houses. The living is a p. curacy in the diocese of Lichfield. Value, £190.* Patron, the Vicar of Bakewell. The church is old; comprises nave and chancel, with a small tower; and contains monuments of the noble family of Eyre. There are two dissenting chapels, respectively in Great Longstone and Little Longstone; and there is a commodious school, built in 1862, and endowed with £25 a year.
Source = www.visionofbritian.org.uk